Collection and Enforcement of Outstanding Oil and Gas Analysis Data

Oct 21, 2011

On December 14, 2010, the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) introduced its Data Integrity Program to improve the accuracy of the data it collects and ensure the continued integrity of its data processes. After consulting industry and other stakeholders, the ERCB is launching a two-phase initiative, described below, focusing on the collection and enforcement of outstanding oil and gas analysis data. This initiative is a follow-up to Bulletin 2008-44: Surveillance and Enforcement of Fluid Analysis Requirements – Existing Requirements and the New Royalty Framework, dated December 10, 2008.

Phase 1—Newly Producing Wells

Effective November 4, 2011, in accordance with Sections 11.070 and 11.120 of the Oil and Gas Conservation Regulations and Sections 3.5 and 4.8 of Directive 040: Pressure and Deliverability Testing Oil and Gas Wells, all newly producing oil and gas wells that have not met the requirements for initial oil and gas analysis and have completed a minimum of three initial months of consecutive production ending in September 2011 will be included on the Outstanding Initial Well Testing Requirements list on the ERCB website www.ercb.ca under Industry Zone : Rules, Regulations, Requirements : Well Testing - Pressure Survey Schedules.

A noncompliance fee of $1000 per well will be in effect for any outstanding requirements after the due date specified on the list (30 days after posted date), as described in Section 6.3 of Directive 040. Upon notification of noncompliance, the licensee is required to respond in accordance with Directive 019: Compliance Assurance.

Phase 2—Legacy Wells

The ERCB will provide licensees with a list by November 4, 2011, of all outstanding initial oil and gas analyses for legacy wells not meeting the requirements to allow licensees time to review and locate initial analyses in their archives. Licensees are expected to locate the initial oil and gas analyses and submit them to the ERCB by January 31, 2012. The ERCB will validate these submissions in about 90 days. Any questions regarding this list must be e-mailed to Welltest-Helpline@ercb.ca.

After all validations have been completed, any oil and gas analyses from legacy wells that remain outstanding will be included on the Outstanding Initial Well Testing Requirements list identified in Phase 1. A noncompliance fee of $1000 per well will be in effect for any outstanding analyses after the due date specified on the list (30 days after posted date), as described in Directive 019: Compliance Assurance.

In the event that a well location has changed since the sample date, the licensee must submit an e-mail with the subject line “Well Location Change [Well Licence #] [UWI]” to Welltest-Helpline@ercb.ca.

Submission Format

Oil and gas data gathered and analyzed on or after July 5, 2004, must be submitted in Pressure ASCII Standard (PAS) file format version 4 through the ERCB Digital Data Submission (DDS) system’s Well Test Data menu option [commonly referred to as Well Test Capture (WTC)]. Both the PAS file and the image file of the test results are required for each well in the submission.

Oil and gas data gathered and analyzed before July 5, 2004, may be submitted in PDF format to the ERCB by e-mail to Welltest-Helpline@ercb.ca or via CD-ROM. Submissions exceeding ten PDFs must be provided on a CD-ROM, clearly labelled as D040 Oil and Gas Analysis, to the address below.